Francisco Costa Is Relaunching Costa Brazil
Another Amyris brand is back in the hands of its founder.
Francisco Costa has said he is relaunching Costa Brazil, the brand he founded in 2018, which Amyris acquired in 2021.
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“Only good energy for the @CostaBrazil launch tomorrow,” a post on Costa’s Instagram page read.
On Tuesday, he had posted on the platform, “Costa Brazil is back. I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the loyalty and partnership you have shown me since the beginning of this journey.”
The brand’s next phase comes after former parent company Amyris filed for bankruptcy last year and, days before that filing, had shuttered both Costa Brazil and Onda Beauty, a retailer cofounded by Naomi Watts.
In October, Costa had bid $350,000 to take the brand over. That same month, Onda Beauty’s cofounder Larissa Thomson won an online auction for that company’s name, website, lease and inventory and has since reopened Onda’s New York store.
A spokesperson for Costa confirmed that he had won the bid at the price of $4,550,000. That includes the release of claims against Amyris valued at roughly $4.2 million.
Other Amyris brands have been auctioned off, including flagship skin care brand Biossance, which fetched $20 million from online beauty retailer THG Beauty. That brand’s products featured squalane, the ingredient Amyris became known for developing, and sold to Givaudan in 2023.
JVN Hair, founded by Jonathan Van Ness, sold to Windsong Global for $1.25 million. Windsong Global also bought baby brand Pipette.
AA Investments (HK) Ltd. purchased Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s brand, Rose Inc., for $2.5 million. Stripes, the menopause brand founded by Watts, was sold for $500,000 to Sakana LLC, where Watts is a managing member.
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